Last night, the Hockey East rivals met for the first time this season in front of a sell-out crowd of 4,666 at Matthews Arena. Because of the outstanding goaltending of both NU freshman Chris Rawlings (43 saves) and BU sophomore Kieran Millan (19 saves), it looked as if the teams would skate to a scoreless tie, as the teams had Jan. 6, 2007, at Agganis Arena.

But junior right wing Wade MacLeod buried a shot from just outside the right post during a power play at 12:37 of the third period, giving the Huskies a 1-0 victory over the seventh-ranked Terriers (2-4-0, 1-3-0).

It was the first time BU had been shut out in an opposing rink since BC did it March 15, 2004.

It was the sixth straight contest that Northeastern (3-3-0, 1-2-0) had scored on the man advantage (1 for 6).

Cronin said he thought the Huskies were largely outplayed and were undermanned because of the loss of forward Tyler McNeely to an injury early in the game, but he said he’d take it.

“Rawlings was terrific,’’ said Cronin, whose team hasn’t played since Oct. 24. “I thought BU really carried the play most of the game. I thought our special teams was obviously the difference in the game. They deserved to win the game. We were very fortunate to get two points out of it, very fortunate. I thought their goalie made some good saves as well, but Chris was tested more. The challenge going forward now is to get some identity out of our skaters.’’

For the first two periods, it was nearly a nonstop parade to the penalty box by both teams (28 minutes in all for 40 minutes, 47 total), which meant lots of special teams. In the first period, the Huskies had a 45-second two-man advantage but couldn’t convert. Only a few seconds after that expired, they had a two-man advantage for 1:08 as a result of an Eric Gryba slash, but again, they couldn’t find a way to cash in.

In the second half of the middle period, dominated by BU, it was the Terriers who had a five-on-three for 39 seconds.

NU, already beset by injuries, dodged a bullet when junior defenseman Mike Hewkin was slammed into the boards in the Huskies’ end with 5:39 gone in the first. He appeared to injure his right leg and was helped off the ice by the trainer and a teammate, but he later returned.

The breakthrough for NU came at 11:37 of the third, when BU freshman right wing Alex Chiasson was whistled off for interference. The Huskies’ sixth power play of the contest earned them the win. BU had the chance to tie it when Hewkin was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for hitting from behind at 15:51 but NU did an outstanding job of killing off the final 4:09 of the contest, particularly when BU pulled Millan for an extra attacker to create a six-on-four advantage. Despite the loss, Parker said he was thrilled by the energy and focus his team brought.

“From the opening faceoff to the last second, I thought it was an unbelievably great college hockey game,’’ said Parker. “I thought we played great, I thought we played as well as we have all year. We came to play tonight, we played hard and we played smart. I loved how hard our team played tonight and how hard our team played and how well our team played. Give them credit, their goalie played great.’’

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell can be reached at marrapese@globe.com.